computer maintenance

Spyware

Date: August 21, 2013

Author: Tom Karakis

Categories: computer maintenance, preventive computer maintenance

The biggest threat to your computer today

Spyware and Adware. You hear about these things almost daily. We have seen news reports on tv about them. Computing magazines such as PC World and PC Magazine have devoted entire issues to them. You undoubtedly have received some pop up ads stating that “you may be infected with spyware”. But what do you really know about spyware and adware? Are they the same thing? How do I get them? How dangerous are they? Hopefully we will answer all of your burning questions about spyware and adware in this article.

Should you leave your computer on all the time?

Date: August 21, 2013

Author: Tom Karakis

Categories: computer maintenance, preventive computer maintenance

Many times, people ask us if they should turn off their computer when not using it, or if it is safe to leave it on overnight. Everybody seems to have heard something different about this one. The truth is, it is absolutely safe, and in some cases even recommended to leave the system on all the time.

All versions of Windows have the ability to schedule tasks such as clean the hard drive, defragment, and other chores. Our suggestion is to leave your system on 24/7, and schedule these tasks to occur overnight while you are sleeping.

Protect Your Computer from Viruses, Spyware, Hackers, and Identity Theft

Date: August 21, 2013

Author: Tom Karakis

Categories: computer maintenance, preventive computer maintenance, Uncategorized

There are four critical things that every computer user needs to help protect themselves from such nasty things as viruses, spyware, hackers, and identity theft.

These four critical items are:

Windows Updates
Current Updated Anti-Virus Software
Current Updated Anti-Spyware Software
Firewall Protection

Let’s take a closer look at these items one by one.

How to Choose a Managed Service Provider

Date: July 16, 2013

Author: Tom Karakis

Categories: computer consulting, computer maintenance, consulting, managed services

Picking a Computer Consultant in the 21st Century

So what do you look for in a Managed Service Provider? Here are a few things to start with.

1) They should monitor and patch all of your equipment.

2) They should provide reporting that makes sense to you. You probably don’t need and wouldn’t read a 200 page report every month. But you should at least get an email that tells you the health of you backup system, your servers, etc.

Managed Services, what is that?

Date: July 16, 2013

Author: Tom Karakis

Categories: computer consulting, computer maintenance, consulting, managed services, preventive computer maintenance, remote monitoring

Seems like these days, almost all computer consulting companies list “managed services” as part of their service offerings. Anyone looking into hiring a company or individual to help with their computers will see managed services listed everywhere. But, what does managed services mean in computer support and what does the service include?

Unfortunately, the term “managed services” does not mean the same thing to all of these companies who offer it. And it doesn’t matter if you are comparing large national computer consulting companies or small local shops.

Calm, Cool, Computer

Date: April 21, 2013

Author: Tom Karakis

Categories: computer consulting, computer maintenance, preventive computer maintenance

With the summer months approaching, we all welcome the warmth that the sun brings.But did you know that room temperatures above 80 degrees can actually decrease the performance of your computers, and possibly damage some of the components of your system? Computers and networking equipment such as routers work optimally when the ambient room temperature is in the low 70’s and below.

We recently had several of our clients experience loss of connection from both the internet and their network. A closer inspection of the problem found that they were keeping their routers on a table in direct sunlight. The added heat was forcing the routers to stop functioning until they would return to safe operating temperatures.